Writing Blog

20230331 Continuing With The Lessons

March 31, 2023, 9:30am

The latest lesson with the family proved interesting.

Sorry, to catch people up, this is following on from "20230323 Writing Lessons Part 1" .

Lesson 5 - Write a conversation
So, I asked the three of them to write a conversation. This resulted in our longest class yet last night.

Mum wrote the conversation like a formal discussion. Dad wrote it okay. Daughter focused way too much on the little bits and pieces the people said. It turns out she'd looked at my old off-WdC blog, recorded a conversation and transcribed it, changing the topic. That meant she included all the umms and errs and ahhs.

So I went through with them the fine line between formal, informal and direct transcription with them. It was very fruitful and all wrote a quick one which seemed to work. Next lesson is to take the conversation they write and add dialogue and action tags. Yes, I have swapped my original lessons 6 and 7, and the lesson 7 (conversation for 3 or more) might not be necessary.

This is what I gave them as a guide. (Copy-pasted from the little hand-out I gave them.)

Dialogue:
"I will do it," he said.
He said, "I will do it."
"Will I do it?" he asked.
He asked, "Will I do it?"
"I'll do it!" he yelled.
He yelled, "I'll do it!"
Dialogue separated:
"I will do it," he said. "When do you need me to do it?"
Dialogue separated when one sentence:
"I will do it," he said, "when I'm ready."
Dialogue interspersed with an action:
"I will do" - he pointed at the pile of laundry - "it when I'm ready."
Dialogue cut off:
"I will do--"
         "You always say that!" she interjected.
Dialogue fading:
"I will do..." His eyes became dreamy as he considered what he was going to do.
Punctuation ensures difference between way of speaking and an action done:
"I'll do it," he sighed.
         He sighed, "I'll do it." (The 'sigh' is how he spoke.)
"I'll do it." He sighed.
         He sighed. "I'll do it." (The sigh comes after/before he spoke.)
Note the punctuation and capital letter usage each time.
Also, Australian literary journals require only single quotation marks for dialogue:
'I will do it,' he said.
Everywhere else seems to be double.
The punctuation is the key. Watch what you use and where!

Why am I putting all this here? Because I hope it can help others here at WdC as well.